Brave New World: Good Story, OK Read

I really enjoyed the story of "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. It was about a dystopian society in which babies were grown in test tubes and were created unequally. There were five casts, ranging from Alpha to Epsilon. The Alphas were the smartest while the Epsilons were bred to be submissive and were the workers. The main character is a privileged individual, although something went wrong when he was being created. I will not say anything more to spoil the ending. Although I enjoyed the story, I didn't find the book very gripping. Some parts were very interesting, although some seemed slow and unnecessary. Despite that, I think it is a book worth reading. While reading it I tried to find reflections of modern society in the distorted world of the fictional future. Although most connections made were stretches, knowing that similarities could be found is slightly worrying and serves as a warning. If we see social developments reflecting those in "Brave New World" we should be ready to stop them.

Soviet opinions of the Civil Rights movement.

The Cold War and the Civil Rights movement were two very turbulent times in American history. Many do not consider them together, although they do have an interesting overlap. At the time of the Civil Rights movement, America was also on edge, fearing communist subversion.  Many powerful people tried to exploit this by labeling civil activists as communists, which most of the time was not the case. Much of the information about the overlap of these to subjects focuses on what was happening in America. However, the reactions in the Soviet Union were also very interesting. The real communists were perplexed by this social issue in America. The United States proudly proclaimed that it was a free country. Why, then, was a significant part of the population denied equality and social freedom? This is why the Civil Rights movement made America look very hypocritical to the USSR. Why would the self-proclaimed "Leader of the Free World" practice such un-free ways? The echos of slavery in the south, the antithesis of freedom, could  clearly be seen in the way blacks were treated at the time in America. It may be a little bit of a stretch to say that the Soviets sympathized with the African Americans, although both groups went through much of the same treatment by America. Containment, more commonly known as a quarantine method practiced internationally by America, was also applied to Blacks. This was done with segregated neighborhoods and systems, which were nearly impossible for minorities to break out of. Could Soviet criticism have been more than just a way to make America look bad? Could Russia have actually cared for the well-being of mistreated Americans?